You're Surrounded!

INTERNET SPACE

You're Surrounded!

Based on NASA Small Business Innovation Research contracts, interactive imaging technology by IPIX combines two images from 180 degree perspectives into a sphere. Once the two images are joined, (Internet, in this instance) users can select sections of the sphere and zoom in on desired areas. The technology is finding applications in real estate sales, surgery and museum sites. Credits: NASA.

by Cheryl L. Mansfield
Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Oct 26, 2004
You're surfing the Internet and hit a Web site that lets you "step inside" a picture. You look up and down, left and right, and can even "virtually" spin around until you reach the point where you started. If it sounds like space age gee-whiz, it is. You've entered the IPIX zone!

Here's how it started. Astronauts working in space need to see in all directions outside their spacecraft, so NASA needed an eye in the sky capable of a 360-degree view.

The answer came in the form of the IPIX interactive imaging technology, which was developed largely through contracts from the Small Business Innovation Research program at Langley Research Center in Virginia.

The IPIX technology fit the bill, letting astronauts aboard Space Shuttles and the International Space Station see outside their spacecraft for operations like docking and robotics. With its real-time control of live video, it allows astronauts to adjust their view by tilting, zooming, rotating and panning right or left.

IPIX makes this possible by using digital image manipulation of a standard video signal. This technology was ideal for space work since it required no moving parts, is noiseless, and responds faster than the blink of an eye. The same technology has proven extremely useful for government, military and commercial security and surveillance systems.

But the space-born technology also gave way to a more mainstream use over the Internet.

Beyond the live video, the IPIX Corporation has expanded the technology to include "immersive" photography, which produces the 360-degree virtual tours used by an increasing number of Web sites.

The virtual tours are created by taking two photos - each covering 180 degrees of a scene - with a high quality "fisheye" lens. The two pictures are then connected, and the "fisheye" distortion removed.

The resulting image is a seamless circle that puts you "inside" the scene. Looking around is as easy as moving a computer mouse to point in the direction you want to see. You can even zoom in to see greater detail.

The technology has proven to be a commercial success in a variety of industries, with real estate and travel leading the way. Web surfers are now accustomed to touring a house for sale or visiting a potential vacation destination without ever leaving their computer.

So the next time you go online to virtually check out a new car or the view from a concert seat, you can thank the people who found a way to help the astronauts get a better view in space.

INFORMATICS

"Knowledge Discovery" Could Speed Creation Of New Products

West Lafayette IN (SPX) Oct 20, 2004
In the recent science-fiction thriller "Minority Report," Tom Cruise plays a detective who solves future crimes by being immersed in a "data cave," where he rapidly accesses all the relevant information about the identity, location and associates of the potential victim.

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